Friday, 10 February 2012

Maria scrawled her signature on the form, and handed the clipboard back to the courier. He scurried out of the lab, leaving her and Tom with the coffin.

"Where exactly did Sasha find this?" asked Maria. She ran her hands across the smooth wood.

"There was a stone sarcophagus in a sub-chamber of the main tomb. Total accident they came across it, apparently there was a false wall, or something. Here, she took some photos of the sarcophagus itself.”

Tom handed her a sheaf of photos. Maria flicked through them. Her brow knitted and her lips pursed as she got further through the stack.

“But the sarcophagus is blank. No carvings, no paintings, no nothing.”

“I know. Just like the coffin. So we have no idea who’s in it.” Tom glanced at the coffin. At seven feet long and three feet wide, it was the largest coffin he’d ever seen. He hoped it would fit in the CT scanner.

“We’ll find out soon enough. Can you help me get it into the CT?”

With much huffing, puffing and swearing, Tom and Maria manoeuvred the coffin into the scanner. Maria pressed buttons on the console and the machine began to hum. She was glad the department had found the funds to buy a full scanner. She hated the old ones, scanning only a portion at a time.

“Was there anything in the chamber at all with it?” asked Maria.

“Apart from a staff, no. The walls were completely bare, too. This guy clearly mattered enough to be mummified, but it’s like they were ashamed of him, and didn’t want him going into the afterlife with everyone else.”

Tom pulled on a pair of white cotton gloves and lifted the staff out of a long case on the table. Maria whistled. Normally wood deteriorated over time, even in the largely airless environment of a tomb, but the staff looked like it had only been carved yesterday. A hunk of black rock, the size of an egg and polished to a smooth finish, nestled between the two prongs at the top of the staff.

“What kind of wood is that?” asked Maria.

“No idea. We’re going to submit it for testing. Sasha thought the rock was obsidian but I’m not so sure. It’s the wrong area for obsidian.”

The machine beeped to announce it was ready to go.

“Right, let’s see who we have.” Maria pressed another button and the coffin slid into the scanner. Tom moved closer to see the screen.

“Bloody hell,” he murmured.

The screen displayed a tall figure, male by its size and proportions, and clearly well-built in his day. Maria imagined a seven foot tall Henry Cavill.

“Hang on...do you see anything strange or am I imagining things?” asked Tom. He pointed at the legs.

“His feet...they’re incredibly misshapen. You can hardly tell they’re feet at all. I wonder if it was a birth defect of some kind? Perhaps he was a genetic mutation. That would certainly explain his height...and possibly why he needed the staff,” mused Maria.

“And look here,” said Tom, pointing further up.

“Are those stumps on his shoulders? I’ve seen them at the base of the spine when individuals have had vestigial tails, but never on the shoulders.”

“The tomb was for a prince, so maybe this side chamber was for another member of the royal family, but one they weren’t proud of. Look at his face – the poor guy has a deformed skull along his hairline.” Tom pointed out two jagged stumps about three inches up his forehead from his eye sockets.

“Poor guy. I just wish they’d put his name on the coffin so we can return him to his rightful place in history.”

Tom sneezed, and the staff fell from his hand. It clattered against the floor, and Maria gasped to see sparks between the tiles and the black egg-shaped rock. Tom bent to pick up the staff. The lights dimmed, and the computer screens crackled. Her own machine displayed an unwelcome blue screen. She moved away from the scanner to read the error message but Tom caught her arm.

“Look,” he whispered. He gestured at the screen.

The lips of the figure curved upwards, and sparks glittered in the depths of the sockets. Maria’s mouth dropped open. She looked from the screen to the scanner.

Thursday, 9 February 2012

I've long been a fan of Carrie Clevenger's Xan Marcelles, and in this novella, the bassist vampire is marched out of Pale Rider, in Pinecliffe, Colorado, and into a hellish house of mysteries. He's not the only one - Ashton Kennedy, written by Nerine Dorman, is a being known as an Inkarna (essentially a body thief) and he's charged with the task of breaking into the same mystery house to retrieve an ancient artifact. The unlikely pair team up in order to bust some heads and get the hell out of there.

I'll be honest upfront - I loved this. I started with the intention of savouring each chapter and taking my time, but I ended up absolutely whizzing through it. Carrie's Xan chapters are written in his inimitable style, and contrast nicely with Ash's more esoteric and worldweary ways. I always enjoy reading Xan's chapters but it's been a real pleasure getting to know Nerine's Ash. The pacing is excellent, taking us from Xan's Ordinary World of Pinecliffe, and into the hidden mysteries of Luxor House. The house was so well-described I felt like I'd actually been there, and the dual observations make it really pop from the page. The action never lets up, and I would love to see a paranormal thriller from these two.

I can't actually recommend it enough, and as an extra incentive, the book will be free on February 10, 11, and 12! If you can't wait until tomorrow, you can download it from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

I'm pleased to announce that I have a short story in a brand new anthology! I submitted One Woman Cure as part of a joint competition between For Books Sake and Pulp Press last year (many thanks to Adam Byatt, Maria Kelly and Michael Shean for their beta reading input) and the anthology, named Short Stack, is available NOW for Kindle!

One Woman Cure appears alongside nine other stories by top female writers in an anthology dedicated to pulp fiction written by women, and about women. My own protagonist, Artemis Hyde, is a gutsy assassin hell-bent on revenge in a shadowy steampunk-esque world. I'm really proud of the story and who knows, if Short Stack does well, there may be more Artemis Hyde adventures in future.

The other stories are absolutely ace, and I'm pleased to be placed in the anthology alongside Bernadette Russell, Evangeline Jennings, Mihaela Nicolescu, Jane Osis, Gill Shutt, Claire Rowland, Shelagh M. Rowan-Lee, Zoe Lambert and Donna Moore. There will also be an event at the Deptford Lounge for International Women's Day on 8 March - I can't make it, but authors Bernadette Russell and Shelagh M. Rowan-Legg will be there, along with Jane Bradley of For Books' Sake and Danny Bowman of Pulp Press. More details here.

I hope you'll check it out, not just for my story but also for the others, and if you like it, leave us a good review! Support lady writers!

Monday, 6 February 2012

If you want to use the prompt, all I ask is that you include a link to this entry and a credit to me for the photograph, and that you post a link to your story in the comments box below so I can see what you've come up with! If you don't comment on this entry, then I can't comment on your story.

The 71st prompt is Woodland Path.

All photo prompts are my own photography - you can find more of it on Flickr. You can also buy my prints from Deviantart. 20% of all proceeds go to charity - the other 80% go towards my PhD fees!

Copyright

All written content and photographic prompts are under copyright to Icy Sedgwick (or respective guest posters) and therefore can't be copied and posted elsewhere, unless you're quoting directly from posts and providing links to the original.

Theft is theft, so let's all play nicely.

Bio

Icy Sedgwick was born in the North East of England, and is based in Newcastle. She has been writing for over ten years, and had her first book, a Western named The Guns of Retribution, published through Pulp Press in September 2011. She spends her non-writing time working on a PhD in Film Studies, knitting, baking and making jewellery.

The Guns of Retribution

The search for a murderous outlaw has brought the long roving Grey O’Donnell near to his hometown of Retribution, Arizona. Bounty hunters ain’t popular but old fashioned manners, kindness to regular folk and a face for the ladies make Grey an exception round these parts; and a six gun’ll take care of the rest. Anyway, Grey has a job to do elsewhere. But, the odious Jasper Roberts has made himself Sheriff of Retribution and he has a score to settle with Grey. Jasper ain’t gonna let morals or the law get in the way of a good hanging and the townsfolk are cowed by their villainous lawman. Can you really mess with a man’s momma and get away with it? Sometimes there is more than one bullet with your name on it.

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Checkmate & Other Stories

Fifteen previously published stories, collected together for the first time, spanning fantasy, horror, sci fi and speculative fiction. Among other things, Bleed Them Dry puts a new spin on vampires, talking corpses tell their side in The Dead Do Listen, a little girl is fascinated with an antique that hides a dark side in The Mirror Phase, and a devilish game of chess goes wrong in Checkmate.

The First Tale

A vaguely steampunk adventure, set in the fictional city of Vertigo. The Resistance is pitted against the shadowy Weimar Corporation that runs the City. Their stalemate is broken by the death of a suspected infiltrator, setting Resistance Commander Liss Hunt and her bewildered companion Philip Wiseman on a journey into the depths of both organisations to discover the truth behind who - or what - is really running the City. Featuring automatons, mad scientists, chases, a gun-toting heroine and even the Living Dead, The First Tale is a short novella that proves people are not always what they seem.

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